9 inches or a foot deep. These are tied on one over the other from the waist nearly up to the breasts, and give the women the appearance of being enveloped, as to that part of the body, in a neat thatch. We now begin to tread on delicate ground, but one may be permitted to say that, taking into consideration the postures they have to assume, it seems a pity that some of the thatching is not put on from the waist downwards instead of expending it all in the other direction. When the women come up none of the Lewe ni Nanga are in sight, excepting the Vērě matua, who are seated in the Nanga tambutambu chanting a song called the Vaya, but all the other men are in hiding near by. Entering in single file at the Little Nanga, the women prostrate themselves, and crawl thence on their hands and knees through the Great Nanga into the Nanga tambutambu, where the elders are singing the solemn chant. The chief priest dips his hands in the Sacred Bowl, which is filled with water, and offers a prayer to the ancestral spirits for the mothers and for their children. This is called the vúluvúlu (handwashing) of the women, the priest's action being vicarious on their behalf. The prayer being over, the women return along the way by which they came, crawling over certain earthmounds in the Nanga, which have been specially prepared for the occasion; and it must suffice to say that, when one of the mounds is topped and the descent on the other side begun, the desirability of a better arrangement of the likus suggests itself. The women, as they retire, chant a song called the Ruérué. When they emerge from the Nanga, the men who have been hitherto concealed rush upon them with a sudden yell, and an indescribable scene ensues. The accounts of my informants vary as to what takes place, probably because the proceedings are not uniform in all the Nangas, and also because with the imperfect materials at our command it is not easy to distinguish between other rites which are celebrated at the Nanga, and those of the initiation ceremony. But all my informants agree in stating that the men and the women address one another in the filthiest language, using expressions which would be violently resented on ordinary occasions, and that from the time of the women's coming to the Nanga to the close of the ceremonies very great licence prevails.2

1 The vúluvúlu is in all cases a release from a tapu. Its meaning in this instance seems to be a temporary suspension of the tapu, which prevents women from entering the Nanga. None but males are qualified to enter it.

2 Mr. Walter Carew, Commissioner for Tholo West, was assured by the old men of Wainimala that at least on some occasions-the men rushed upon the women while they were in the Nanga, and that any woman laid hold of within the enclosure was for the time the lawful prize of her captor. But I have not

Various dances of great indecency having been performed, the women return to the town, and the men prepare to follow. The Verě lead the way, taking nothing with them, but the rest of the Lewe ni Nanga ornament themselves with long trains of native cloth, and daub one another's faces and busts with black paint. The Vūnilōlō and the Vilavóu being thus adorned, and holding a green bough in each hand, follow to the town. As they cross the ford they dip the branches into the stream to make them glisten in the sunlight, and shake them to and fro as they advance, their feet keeping time to a rhythmical chant. The Vere are seated near two large candlenut saplings, which were concealed in the long grass during the previous night, and they welcome the new-comers with a deep-toned shout, "Vēō, vēō, nduāsā-ā-āmu!" to which the others shout responsive, and clap their hands crosswise in unison, producing a hollow sound.

The two saplings are then set up, and between them is piled the property which has been already presented. This is now supplemented by large gifts made by the Kai Muáira and others, who are not Lewe ni Nanga, but are connected with the community. Various parties of these men are concealed near the town, and bands of the Lewe ni Nanga go out to seek them, chanting a song which I am unable to interpret. Having found the hidden parties, they turn, and lead them to the spot where the poles are set up, and there they deposit their offerings. These proceedings may last for several days, during which an enormous quantity of property is accumulated, great feasts are devoured, and an almost unlimited licence between the sexes prevails. The Vērě matua then share out the store of wealth which has been presented, taking excellent care of their own interests in the division, and they set apart a number of pigs to serve for the next ceremony. These beasts are henceforth sacred. They are the pigs of Nanga, and have the run of all the overflowings of the fleshpots in the villages where they are appointed to be kept. They are held in the greatest reverence. To kill one, excepting for sacrifice at one of the Nanga rites, would be an inconceivable act of sacrilege, and it is an act of piety to feed them. Men may be seen throwing down basketfuls of food before them as a meritorious offering, and calling the attention of the ancestors to the gift-"Take knowledge of me, ye who lie buried, our heads! I am feeding this pig of yours.' The last act of the ceremony is the Sisili, or Bath. All the

been able to ascertain whether this licence is connected with the initiation ceremony, or with one of the other occasions on which the Nanga is used.

I am not certain as to the time when the Sisili takes place whether it is soon after the return from the Nanga, or not until all the property has been

men who have taken part in the Nanga rites go together to the river, and there carefully cleanse themselves from every particle of the black paint with which they have been bedaubed. The new-made Vilavou are then brought to the chief priest, and seated before him and the Vērě matūa on the river bank. He delivers to them an impressive discourse on the new position they have assumed, points out to them the duties which now devolve upon them, enjoins strict observance of the tribal customs, threatens them with the sure vengeance of the gods if they reveal the Nanga mysteries to the uninitiated, and especially warns them against eating the best kinds of yams and other vegetables. These, together with freshwater fish and eels caught in the river, are forbidden to them. They must present them to the elders, and content themselves with wild yams, and such articles of food as are not so highly esteemed. As the black paint with which they were adorned mingled with the water of the stream, and flowed away from them when they washed themselves, so also, if they disobey these injunctions, will the comely dark colour of their skins disappear, and leave them of a hideous pallor, a spectacle abhorrent to both gods and men.

Other Rites of the Nanga.

1. Sacrifice and Thank-offering-The foregoing are the main ceremonies connected with initiation, as far as I have been able to ascertain them; but, in addition to them, there are other rites performed at the Nanga. In fact it is the Sacred Place where the ancestral spirits are to be found by their worshippers, and thither offerings are taken on all occasions when their aid is to be invoked. Every member of the Nanga has the privilege of approaching the ancestors at any time. When sickness visits himself or his kinsfolk, when he wishes to invoke the aid of the spirits to avert calamity or to secure prosperity, or when he deems it advisable to present a thank-offering, he may enter the Nanga with proper reverence, and deposit on the dividing wall his whale's tooth, or bundle of cloth, or dish of toothsome eels so highly prized by the elders, and therefore by the ancestors whose living representatives they are: or he may drag into the Sacred Nanga his fattened pig, or pile up there his offering of the choicest yams. And, having thus recommended himself to the dead, he may invoke their powerful aid, or express his thankfulness for the benefits they have conferred, and beg for a continuance of their goodwill.

As might have been expected, for some time after the given and shared out. But it is certainly the closing act of the ceremonial part of the proceedings.

Wainimala people abandoned heathenism, offerings were taken on the sly to the Nanga, and the Mission teachers used to keep a sharp look-out for footprints leading in that direction. One of them who visited it about two years after the nominal acceptance of Christianity' by the tribe, described it to me as filled with a thick growth of grass and weeds; but there were whales' teeth still lying on the wall of the Sacred Nanga, the bones of many pigs strewed the enclosure, and in the gateway an enormous hog with a fine pair of tusks was lying in an advanced stage of decomposition, showing that some of the people were still making sacrifices to the ancestral gods.

2. The First-fruits of the Yam Harvest are presented to the ancestors in the Nanga with great ceremony before the bulk of the crop is dug for the people's use, and no man may taste of the new yams until the presentation has been made. The yams thus offered are piled in the Great Nanga, and are allowed to rot there. If any one were impiously bold enough to appropriate them to his own use he would be smitten with madness. The mission teacher before-mentioned told me that, when he visited the Nanga, he saw among the weeds with which it was overgrown, numerous yam vines which had sprung up out of the piles of decayed offerings. Great feasts are made at the presentations of the first-fruits, which are times of public rejoicing, and the Nanga itself is frequently spoken of as the Mbaki, or Harvest.

Circumcision. With the exception of the initiation ceremony, the most interesting of the Nanga rites are those connected with Circumcision. When a man of note is dangerously ill, a family council is held, and it is agreed that a circumcision shall take place as a propitiatory measure. Notice having been given to the priests, an uncircumcised lad-the sick man's son or one of his brother's sons-is taken by his kinsman to the Vale tambu, or God's House, and there presented as a soro, or offering of atonement, that his father may recover. His escort make valuable presentations of property at the same time, and promises of more. These are graciously received by the priest, who sets a day on which the operation is to be

1 I use the phrase "nominal acceptance of Christianity," certainly not in any sense depreciatory of mission work, but simply because it represents the actual fact. The turning of such a tribe from heathenism as a political movement (which was the case with the Wainimala folk) is nothing more than this in the first instance. It is only a certain class of platform orators at home who speak of such a movement as the "conversion" of an entire people, using the word in its theological sense. Missionaries in the field do not talk like that.

2 "His father." If it were one of the sick man's brothers' sons who was taken, the term "father" would be none the less applicable according to the Fijian system of relationship.

performed. In the interval no food may be taken from the plantations excepting what is absolutely required for every day use, no pigs or fowls may be killed, and no cocoanuts plucked from the trees. Everything, in short, is put under a strict tapu, and all must be set apart for the great feasting which is to take place when the ceremony is performed.

On the day appointed, the son of the sick chief is circumcised, and with him a number of other lads whose friends have agreed to take advantage of the occasion. Their foreskins, stuck in the cleft of a split reed, are taken to the Nanga, and presented to the chief priest, who, holding the reeds in his hand, offers them to the ancestral gods,' and prays for the sick man's recovery. Then follows a great feast, which ushers in a period of indescribable revelry. All distinctions of property are for the time being suspended. Men and women array themselves in all manner of fantastic garbs, address one another in the most indecent phrases, and practice unmentionable abominations openly in the public square of the town. The nearest relationships-even that of own brother and sister-seem to be no bar to the general licence, the extent of which may be indicated by the expressive phrase of an old Nandi chief, who said, "While it lasts, we are just like the pigs." This feasting and frolic may be kept up for several days, after which the ordinary restrictions recur once more. The rights of property are again respected, the abandoned revellers settle down into steadygoing married couples, and brothers and sisters may not so much as speak to one another. Nowhere in Fiji, as far as I am aware, excepting in the Nanga country, are these extravagances connected with the rite of circumcision.2

1 Compare Zipporah's offering on behalf of Moses, Exodus iv, 25.

2 Mr. Edward O'Brien Heffernan, Native Advocate, and Stipendiary Magistrate, kindly made, at my request, a special inquiry into the extraordinary licence attending the rite of circumcision at Nandi, and sent me a written statement concerning it, taken down by him from the lips of one Nemani Dreu, in the presence of the principal chiefs of Nandi, Vunda, and Sambeto. Subsequent inquiry more than confirmed the statement, which is unfit for publication. Of necessity in this memoir I omit certain particulars of almost incredible indecency, which I have privately forwarded to Dr. Edward B. Tylor. [The details of indecent dances and rites referred to may be left in MS., but it is of interest, as bearing on the argument as to early communal intercourse, of which such customs may possibly be ceremonial survivals, to notice that their principle is formulated in an accepted native phrase. On the fourth day, when the food is no longer tabu, but tara (permitted), and the great feast is prepared, it is said that there are no taukei ni vuaka se alewa ("owners of pigs or women)." Not only does it appear that the groups of tribal brothers and sisters (using this term according to the native system of kinship) are not excluded from this temporary communism, but another MS. account by Mr. Fison mentions their being intentionally coupled, falling in one behind another in the Nanga procession, with the accompanying chant in the most explicit terms,—

"Ne cégenía e tu e mata."